Processes, and materials for such processes, for the manufacture of glass have millenniums of development. In particular, glass manufacturers have been, and continue to be, concerned with the components, thermodynamics and other characteristics of the glass-making reactions in glass furnaces. The glass reaction generally involves the reaction of materials to produce a composition containing the reacted and/or dispersed components of silica (silicon dioxide from sand, quartz and the like), soda ash (sodium carbonate), and lime (calcium oxide from quicklime, hydrated lime and the like) with other optional components, generally metal oxides of lead, lithium, cerium, iron, magnesium, potassium, barium, borax and the like.
Various considerations have addressed such processes by varying the feed materials and the process schemes for the reaction of such compositions. Such considerations include, for example, reaction of a portion of the materials before creating a total glass batch. For example, one scheme is pretreatment of the batch constituents by calcining the limestone and/or dolomite constituents so as to decompose the carbonates to oxides. This calcining releases carbon dioxide from the material added to make the total glass batch. This elimination of carbon dioxide before melting begins is advantageous since it reduces the entrapping of gaseous inclusions in the glass. Other schemes involve using various components to attempt to effect the reaction's thermodynamics or quality or yield results. While advances have been made, there still exists the need for developing processes and feed materials to improve the glass-making processes.